topic Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone? in Off-Topic

Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

pgn — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 10:47:24 GMT

So Gatwick OPs handed out whiteboards and dry-wipe markers when the display screens all went on the fritz...

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/whiteboards-used-as-gatwick-flight-info-screens-fail-11477470

Who said mobile data networks were the future? Oops.

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

Glory1 — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:01:19 GMT

I always say technology's wonderful when it works. But when it doesn't, oh my....🤣

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

madasaf1sh — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:09:18 GMT

Dont forget that Voda also provide fibre to the premises as well as leased line, and this is seemingly a cable failure

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

Cleoriff — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 12:59:19 GMT

A Gatwick spokesperson said a "handful of people had missed their flights" as a result of the problem.

Expect a number of compensation claims then.....

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

pgn — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 13:06:55 GMT

@Cleoriff wrote:
Expect a number of compensation claims then.....

I am sure both Gatwick and Vodafone have insurance to cover that contingency...

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 13:35:54 GMT

Yep, fibre optic cable breaks due to human or animal intervention are common these days.

It's either someone putting a spade or more likely a digger bucket through them or Rats chewing through them.

Aside from using the expensive steel armour jacketed cable as well as running a backup along a different route there's not a huge amount that can be done to stop it, doesn't matter if it's Vodafone, BT, Virgin Media or City Fibre.

Fibre is fibre.

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

sheepdog — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 13:42:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yep, fibre optic cable breaks due to human or animal intervention are common these days.

It's either someone putting a spade or more likely a digger bucket through them or Rats chewing through them.

Aside from using the expensive steel armour jacketed cable as well as running a backup along a different route there's not a huge amount that can be done to stop it, doesn't matter if it's Vodafone, BT, Virgin Media or City Fibre.

Fibre is fibre.

True, you can't cater for the unexpected! Though I would have thought there was some redunancy in place but guessing that might be an acceptable risk. As in its cheaper for a few people to miss their flights that the airlines/insurance are forced to take on than it is for the Airport operator to pay for a second line that won't be used.

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 14:33:38 GMT

I'd imagine they'll now give some thought to diverse routing and multi-homing

(Diverse routing is where a second fibre comes into a building on a completely different path, perhaps the opposite side, multi-homing involves obtaining connections from multiple suppliers or at least separate physical networks so reducing the possibility of a complete outage, most ISPs are multi-homed)

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

pgn — Mon, 20 Aug 2018 15:03:38 GMT

After the fact, of course...

The diversity put into the fibre incoming to my workplace over a decade ago has stood us in good stead, so far... Different vendors, different paths, although, alas limited for several years to BT for the last few miles, even if they do come into the building from opposite ends and in diverse ducts...

"Backhoe" incidents are all too frequent, and when there were 2 sites about 20miles apart where I work, one was taken out for about 36hours when a digger went through the ducts late one summer evening... Never seen so many floodlights shining down a hole as on that evening...

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

Anonymous — Tue, 21 Aug 2018 08:54:10 GMT

@pgn wrote:
So Gatwick OPs handed out whiteboards and dry-wipe markers when the display screens all went on the fritz...

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/whiteboards-used-as-gatwick-flight-info-screens-fail-11477470

Who said mobile data networks were the future? Oops.

Well there must be an App that provides that information

It reminds of the time that I was travelling by train from Berlin, when much of Western Europe was affected by severe weather, leading to major delays on most routes. I was supposed to be travelling back to London, and it’s a long journey even when the trains are running on time, so I wasn’t optimistic about making my Eurostar connection in Brussels.

So I joined a long queue to find out what was happening, only to discover that Deutsche Bahn staff were just referring to the same rail App that I was using

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 17:57:51 GMT

@pgn wrote:
After the fact, of course...

The diversity put into the fibre incoming to my workplace over a decade ago has stood us in good stead, so far... Different vendors, different paths, although, alas limited for several years to BT for the last few miles, even if they do come into the building from opposite ends and in diverse ducts...

"Backhoe" incidents are all too frequent, and when there were 2 sites about 20miles apart where I work, one was taken out for about 36hours when a digger went through the ducts late one summer evening... Never seen so many floodlights shining down a hole as on that evening...

@pgn

A few months back one of the remote offices at work was taken out by what turned out to be a Rat chewing through the fibre.

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

pgn — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 19:12:32 GMT

Yeah, @Anonymous, @some armoured fibre is coated with chemicals abhorrent to rodents... but tastes change

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

Anonymous — Wed, 22 Aug 2018 19:15:03 GMT

@pgn

I've no involvement with the physical networking side of things at work so don't know if this fibre was armoured or not.

I think this particular one was maintained through BT.

Re: Gatwick IT or Vodafone?

gmarkj — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 08:17:33 GMT

I have two stories to share, both amusing for different reasons.
1: An auditor used to come on site once a month to check paperwork for vehicles was in order. As he was a mobile worker he had a company laptop. To connect to the network he would unplug the cable from the back of the PC on the desk he was using, do his work, and then plug it back into the PC.
On this occasion instead of plugging it into the PC he instead plugged it into an unused network port on the wall. Cue network meltdown. This was a Friday afternoon. We had no on-site IT so had to get a contractor in (from central IT) Friday, Saturday and Monday before the issue was resolved.
2: There was a new roundabout and overpass being built just down the road from my workplace (it was one of 3 warehouses on the site). JCB went straight through the telecoms cables. No connection to outside for 24 hours while they patched it up.
According to the info we got passed, the cables should have been 2 metres to one side of where they were but had been moved because they couldn't dig the trench where they were supposed to have.